I've been meaning to post a report on a trip I took to southern Mindanao a few weeks ago. I guess now is a good time since I missed my flight to Coron this morning and am now hanging out on Scubaboard in Netopia listening to some excellent chillout dub on Live 365 to pass the hours.
I took a flight from Manila to Gensan where I was picked up at the airport and taken down to South Point Divers. A very nice location with the dive shop looking over the waters of Sarangani Bay. I enjoyed the time spent diving with Paul along the sites of Tinoto Wall and a couple of offshore reefs in the area, Maasim Reefs I think? I unfortunately don't have my logbook on hand to reference...Easy to spend a few days just around Tinoto Wall exploring the sites. Rocky Beach with its resident turtle and Napoleon Wrasse usually around, the Abyss, Sandbar are all nice. Thanks Paul!
After my weekend diving Tinoto I went into Gensan to stay at Cambridge Farm Hotel and dive with Chris Dearne of Tuna City Divers. Chris usually went to Maharlika Beach for diving where there is a good shallow reef to explore. I saw and photographed my first mandarin fish in the staghorn patch, very happy to have finally found one! Also saw some other interesting critters there including a weedy scorpionfish and the resident school of yellowtail barracuda.
I was also lucky to be able to dive some of the sites further away from Gensan with the help of John Heitz, a guy who exports tuna from Gensan to the US. After he finished the mornings work of buying and boxing the days tuna order at the fishport, we would decide where to go for the diving. As a result I got to do dives at: Tuka Reef which has lots of nice staghorn coral. Lumuyon has several excellent offshore reefs which had very good coral cover and lots of fish life. And ranking among my favorite individual dive sites in the Philippines was Luyon reef of Maitum. Lots of fish life, blue spotted rays, 7-8 blacktip reef sharks seen over 3 dives, lots of huge table corals some 10+ feet diameter, and a big patch of cabbage coral. Manga reef was worth diving but not quite as good as Luyon, disappointing to see a trap there with a blacktip and 5 blue spotted rays inside. Sorry if my spelling is not exact on some of the names, arrgh wish I had my log book, but I think the locations are in order.
Chris and John are making concrete reef domes and getting lots of them in the water on a regular schedule along with the help of South Point Divers. After less than a year the domes are getting hard and soft coral growing, helped along by transplanting coral tips onto them, and the fish seem happy to have the additional habitat. A couple of nice dome patches around Maharlika and in front of South Point Divers to check out among other places. I think it is great to see how simple it could be to help restore areas that have been dynamited or otherwise in need of a helping hand. http://sunstar.com.ph/static/gen/2005/06/22/feat/domes.for.the.future.html It seems like there is a lot of potential for positive long term results with this project.
Here are a few other links, http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/gen/2005/06/13/feat/best.kept.secrets.of.sarangani.bay.html,http://www.tunadive.com/4466.html,http://www.southpointsaranganibay.com/
I spent about two weeks diving around Gensan and would happily go back for two more. Good prices and quality diving made for a worthwhile trip. Now, if I can just manage make my flight tomorrow morning...
I took a flight from Manila to Gensan where I was picked up at the airport and taken down to South Point Divers. A very nice location with the dive shop looking over the waters of Sarangani Bay. I enjoyed the time spent diving with Paul along the sites of Tinoto Wall and a couple of offshore reefs in the area, Maasim Reefs I think? I unfortunately don't have my logbook on hand to reference...Easy to spend a few days just around Tinoto Wall exploring the sites. Rocky Beach with its resident turtle and Napoleon Wrasse usually around, the Abyss, Sandbar are all nice. Thanks Paul!
After my weekend diving Tinoto I went into Gensan to stay at Cambridge Farm Hotel and dive with Chris Dearne of Tuna City Divers. Chris usually went to Maharlika Beach for diving where there is a good shallow reef to explore. I saw and photographed my first mandarin fish in the staghorn patch, very happy to have finally found one! Also saw some other interesting critters there including a weedy scorpionfish and the resident school of yellowtail barracuda.
I was also lucky to be able to dive some of the sites further away from Gensan with the help of John Heitz, a guy who exports tuna from Gensan to the US. After he finished the mornings work of buying and boxing the days tuna order at the fishport, we would decide where to go for the diving. As a result I got to do dives at: Tuka Reef which has lots of nice staghorn coral. Lumuyon has several excellent offshore reefs which had very good coral cover and lots of fish life. And ranking among my favorite individual dive sites in the Philippines was Luyon reef of Maitum. Lots of fish life, blue spotted rays, 7-8 blacktip reef sharks seen over 3 dives, lots of huge table corals some 10+ feet diameter, and a big patch of cabbage coral. Manga reef was worth diving but not quite as good as Luyon, disappointing to see a trap there with a blacktip and 5 blue spotted rays inside. Sorry if my spelling is not exact on some of the names, arrgh wish I had my log book, but I think the locations are in order.
Chris and John are making concrete reef domes and getting lots of them in the water on a regular schedule along with the help of South Point Divers. After less than a year the domes are getting hard and soft coral growing, helped along by transplanting coral tips onto them, and the fish seem happy to have the additional habitat. A couple of nice dome patches around Maharlika and in front of South Point Divers to check out among other places. I think it is great to see how simple it could be to help restore areas that have been dynamited or otherwise in need of a helping hand. http://sunstar.com.ph/static/gen/2005/06/22/feat/domes.for.the.future.html It seems like there is a lot of potential for positive long term results with this project.
Here are a few other links, http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/gen/2005/06/13/feat/best.kept.secrets.of.sarangani.bay.html,http://www.tunadive.com/4466.html,http://www.southpointsaranganibay.com/
I spent about two weeks diving around Gensan and would happily go back for two more. Good prices and quality diving made for a worthwhile trip. Now, if I can just manage make my flight tomorrow morning...
